mixed plastic recycling line
Application notes for a mixed plastic recycling line. Selection follows the contamination map, which washing and sorting stages sit before extrusion, and which upstream or downstream interfaces the hall already owns. These contexts are procurement questions, not plant commissioning certificates.
Production stage
- Operating context
- Municipal or industrial mixed plastics entering as bales or shredded flake, with paper labels, metals, sand and variable moisture. The production stage in scope is feedstock preparation plus washing or sorting, not a pelletizing-only cell.
Work through this decision
| Decision point | Evidence or question |
|---|---|
| Production stage: Must have | Name polymer split, contaminant types, feed form and the intended recovered fraction. Ask which optical, sink-float or friction stages sit before extrusion, and who supplies water treatment. Representative samples should include the difficult fraction, not only the cleanest bale. |
| Tradeoff | Extra sorting before wet grinding can reduce washer load and raise reject mass. Extra wet grinding without sorting can raise water and energy use while still leaving mixed-color flake. Neither route is universally cheaper; they change staffing, interfaces and SAT samples. Industry dispute “nominal speed or validated output” belongs here: request test conditions and buyer samples instead of brochure kg/h. |
| Next question | Which upstream shredder or downstream silo already exists, and what PLC handshake is expected? If the hall has no water-treatment permit path, list that as a buyer civil item rather than hiding it inside the machine price. |
Typical mixed-stream RFQs in 2025 still fail when one bidder quotes input tonnes and another quotes dried flake. Keep those columns labeled. Residual moisture after the dryer, sand in the sink-float tank and metal at the eddy-current belt are separate evidence items. A mixed plastic recycling line that feeds an existing extruder still needs a defined flake cleanliness; extrusion settings are the downstream owner’s problem unless the pelletizer is on the same purchase. Tooling for screens and paddles, installation pits and spare parts kits remain included or extra. FAT should freeze the mixed sample recipe; SAT should use the same recipe after cooling and drying.
If the application is film-heavy, ask whether a pre-wash and additional friction stages are quoted. If the application is rigid crates, ask about drum diameter in metres and metal detection location. If labels dominate, ask who owns the paper-fines circuit. None of those answers should be inferred from a generic plastics-machinery catalog photo. Send the application pack through the inquiry form or review washing-line inquiry labels first.